DBS, Singapore’s largest bank and a leading bank in Asia, plans to hire 100 technology skilled professionals, in emerging and disruptive technologies across cloud, machine learning and Big Data, as it ups the ante on ‘reimagining banking’. Taking this new approach to recruitment, DBS will break banking industry norms by recruiting successful candidates through a hackathon - the first bank in Southeast Asia to do so.

The 100 new selects will join DBS Asia Hub 2 in Hyderabad, India. This coding challenge, which has already received more than 3000 applications, is open to both fresh graduates and experienced professionals who can apply up to March 12, 2017.

Mohit Kapoor, CEO, DBS Asia Hub 2 said “We want to build a culture of experimentation, backed by robust technology solutions and creative intelligence to consistently innovate and evolve our digital journey. Hackathons like this help us connect with top talent across the country who are game changers and will be instrumental in reimagining banking.” 

The recruitment drive, DBS Hack2Hire, consists of two parts - an online assessment challenge to gauge the programming and technical capabilities of candidates, followed by a live two-day hackathon session, where their approach to problem solving will be put to the test. Shortlisted candidates from the second round will undergo interviews for full-time roles at DBS Asia Hub 2. The bank has collaborated with leading technology providers such as Amazon Web Services, Cloudera and Pivotal for conducting the hackathon.

“We are seeing rapid advancements in banking technology using cloud, machine learning and Big Data, which are paving the way for a new world of seamless banking. We want to bring developers well-versed in these new technologies into the bank to accelerate our digital transformation efforts. We believe that recruiting via a hackathon is an innovative and effective way to attract the right talent,” said Soh Siew Choo, DBS’ Group Head of Core Systems Technology. 

“We are pleased to play a strategic role in accelerating DBS Bank’s digital transformation journey with Amazon Web Services.  It is impressive that a financial institution like DBS is using new, innovative ways to bring in talent with cloud development skills, and we are delighted to support them while grooming the technology leaders of tomorrow,” said Nick Walton, Head of ASEAN of Amazon Web Services.

“As the banking industry and its customers embrace digital in the face of the fourth industrial revolution, the need to utilise data for meaningful decision making and improving customer experience will only keep growing.” said Daniel Ng, Senior Director, Asia Pacific, Cloudera. “Bringing in talent with this new approach demonstrates DBS’ commitment to transforming its operations. We are thrilled to play a role in helping DBS shape the future of banking and develop smart talent for success in this digital era.”

Lionel Lim, Vice President and Managing Director, Asia Pacific and Japan, Pivotal said: “The financial services sector is a key driver of Singapore's growth. Forward thinking organisations such as DBS are partnering with Pivotal to digitally transform their operations to innovate with the speed and agility of a Silicon Valley software company. Moreover, DBS’ transformation journey will enable greater possibilities and opportunities for their business, customers and the country’s workforce. We are extremely happy to collaborate with DBS in their transformation efforts to push the frontier of banking technology.”

DBS Bank has reinvented banking through constant innovation. It launched digibank, India’s first paperless, signatureless and mobile-only bank.  Over the past few years, DBS has been deeply immersed in furthering its digital transformation agenda. This includes embarking on a comprehensive and holistic mission of building a start-up culture, re-architecting the bank’s technology infrastructure, and leveraging Big Data, biometrics and artificial intelligence to reimagine banking for its customers. It was also the first bank to be recognised as the “World’s Best Digital Bank” by prestigious financial magazine Euromoney in 2016.

DBS Bank recently conducted a similar initiative in India named ‘Ideathon’ to identify talent from top business schools across India. This was part of the bank’s campus engagement and communication strategy, aimed to make DBS Bank the preferred place to work for millennials.